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Link exchange with nofollow bad for ranking?

I wanted to give my EMD (Exact match domain) some more links and added it to some general start pages, just as my competitors did. The disadvantage of such link sites is that you have to add a link back to them.

So I created a new page in my footer "links" and added a link back to those who requested that. However, I made all links a nofollow because I don't want them to benefit from my rankings.

Those sites really have nothing to do with my subject and are just interested in a link to give them some boost I guess.

I'm sure not everybody like my approach, but my question is. Will those nofollow links on my page back to the ones that requested it affect my rankings?Or should I remove the nofollow?

2 Responses

Many link-exchange setups also double as link-sellers, and most are not exactly subtle about it. As a result of this they can potentially become blacklisted by Google.

There's no way to definitively say whether or not a site has been blacklisted by Google, but if those sites have been blacklisted and then you link to them, you can get penalised. A hyperlink is like saying you endorse these guys.

Check to make sure they are not obviously selling links or doing anything really bad before you link to them. I learned all this the hard way myself :P

I'm not sure if 'nofollowing' your reciprocal link will protect you from penalisation. I have never tried that myself

Please note that those page that I want a link from are just "start pages". Better known as "directory sites". Those pages are very famous in the Netherlands and millions of people have it as their startpage when they start-up their browser.

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